The European Commission (EC) is working on the situation with the EU Court of Justice's decision on OPAL gas pipeline, which has restricted Russian gas giant Gazprom's access to it, and is considering the possibility of appealing or implementing this decision in another way, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak told reporters on Thursday
BRUSSELS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th September, 2019) The European Commission (EC) is working on the situation with the EU Court of Justice's decision on OPAL gas pipeline, which has restricted Russian gas giant Gazprom's access to it, and is considering the possibility of appealing or implementing this decision in another way, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak told reporters on Thursday.Talks between the European Union, Russia and Ukraine were held in the Belgian capital city of Brussels earlier in the day and were chaired by Maros Sefcovic, the vice president of the European Commission in charge of the Energy Union. Russia was represented by Novak, while Ukraine was represented by Energy Minister Oleksiy Orzhel.
"No, today we did not discuss this topic [at the trilateral consultations] specifically with our Ukrainian colleagues. We discussed it at a bilateral meeting with Mr. Sefcovic. Our colleagues confirmed that they were now studying the legal possibility of appealing or implementing this court decision in another way. They have a deadline of November 20, we hope that our colleagues will decide in the shortest possible time, since the decision of the European Commission in the first place on this issue," Novak said.
The European Commission's decision of 2016 gave the Russian company a possibility to additionally transport up to 10.2 billion cubic meters of gas per year via OPAL, taking part in relevant auctions. OPAL receives gas from the Nord Stream pipeline, which is laid from Russia's Vyborg to German Greifswald.
However, on September 9, the EU court overruled the European Commission's decision of 2016 as violating the energy solidarity principle. According to the decision, Gazprom must reduce gas transit via OPAL to 50 percent of the capacity. The European Commission promised to carefully analyze this decision.
